All In A Day’s Work: Meter Reader Blocked From Customer’s Home By Deadly Creature

By: Christopher Feery | February 13, 2018

Occupational hazards come with the territory for certain gigs, and prospective employees have to come to terms with them before coming on board. However, there are rare occasions when a hazard will pop up that isn’t covered in training materials.

What is the employee to do in those cases? In the case of this meter reader in Australia, the answer was to hightail it out of there - but not before leaving a note.

As the Daily Mail shares, Ian Trevethan was the customer that received the note, and he was quick to share it on social media.

“Found this note on the meter box this morning. Only in Australia,” he shared.

The note was one of those standard slips of paper you would expect to see from a utility company, and it featured the phrase “Your assistance is required because.”

So why would the utility company need Trevathan’s help? That answer was provided next to the phrase that read “Your meter was blocked by.” The meter reader would fill in the source of his angst: “brown snake.”

Trevathan found plenty of humor in what he discovered, and he added in some more commentary on a situation he was quite tickled with.

“Brown snake scared off the meter reader but I'm certain the bill will still arrive,” read one post.

“I'm going to train him to lay in front of the water meter next. Might be able to hire him out,” he added in another post.

It’s unclear if the meter reader also found the situation humorous, but we’re going to err to the side that says no. The notice would also include some further explanation of exactly what happened.

“I was able to read one meter before snake came out of grass,” the note read.

That’s enough to scare the daylights out of anyone, and the meter reader was wise to hightail it out of there and not press his or her luck. Brown snakes are highly venomous.

Needless to say, one bite can lead to some seriously unpleasant problems. Nonetheless, there were plenty of other users that found humor in the situation as well.

“Sounds like a way to stop the lazy b*****ds driving over my front lawn to get to meter box and save on the power bill,” wrote one user.

No word on what kind of training the utility company offers up in regards to what to do when you come across a highly venomous snake in your travels, but we would imagine that the employee made the right call. The reader was even able to leave a note to document the situation, and that’s about the best that can be expected in this situation.

While the job didn’t get completely done, the employee made the right call. Safety comes first, and the overwhelming majority of employers understand that fact. If you happen to find yourself employed by one that doesn’t get that concept, it may be a good idea to start looking for another gig.